1) When is it ever appropriate to ask a complete stranger for some of their food?? Unless you are homeless, or someone is holding a sign that says FREE FOOD FOR STRANGERS, the answer is NEVER.

2) Walking across town with a pizza box is like wearing a sign that says PLEASE START A CONVERSATION WITH ME.

3) Based on my lifelong research, I conclude that going out alone only turns out good approximately 20% of the time. The other 80%=having to talk to creepers.

For the first few weeks of living alone, I didn’t go out much but I’m finally started to try and venture out more. But yesterday I was reminded of why I don’t go out alone. Many times this summer, I’ve thought about sitting at a bar to have a drink, but then always chicken out at the last minute. Yesterday I had some time to kill in between errands, so I went to this restaurant/bar where people also hang out with laptops. I sit at the bar and order a mojito. A man 4 seats away from me tells me that it looks good, and I politely smile and say yes it is. Then a few minutes later, three sips into my drink, he sneakily ambles over to me and starts talking to me, then picks up my drink and says “Can I try it? Can I try your drink” and then drinks it through the stirry straws as I fumble incredulously.

I finally went to the Tactile Dinner performance that I talked about last week. The Tactile Dinner is a play that is part of the Fringe Festival, a theater festival of experimental, postmodern, anything-goes performances. It was less of a “dinner” and more of a play with audience participation.

I won’t say anything the deep intellectual meaning of this experimental art project, but I can say that as an amateur cook the it raised my curiosity about experiencing food without eating it.

I’m a little torn between giving everything away and sharing the experience with people who can’t go. Eh. I don’t have a lot of readers, so option 2 wins. Read on for the details: Continue reading →

The new half-season of No Reservations starts tonight, and I don’t have a TV to watch it 😦 I wonder if they’ll put it on Hulu. Tony kicks it the season by going to Chile.

Latin food is my new obsession, and I’ve already used past episodes to guide my food journey. My first intro to the world of rice and beans was Puerto Rican food, which I ate a lot I was working in non-profit in a PR community. Then I moved to Providence and craved it all year long. I finally started branching out and trying other types of latin food that Rhode Island had to offer and wasn’t disappointed. I ate Peruvian for the first time two weeks ago (wasn’t too excited by it), and the other day I had Salvadoran tamales, another thing I missed from my non-profit days. Anyway, my motto “WWABE – What Would Anthony Bourdain Eat” hasn’t failed me in picking adventurous things to eat.

Unfortunately, the new San Francisco episode airs the day after I get back from San Fran.

I like to do weird things. Check out this absolutely insane-sounding dinner/performance that I’m going to this weekend:

You are cordially invited to celebrate the passé-ist glory of Futurist degustation: a tactile seven-course meal of gastronomic revolution. Those without suitable tactilist garb will be loaned one upon entry.

That didn’t quite give me enough information, so I looked into what the heck tactile dinner parties were like. They’re based on The Futuristic Cookbook, written in 1931, by F.T. Marinetti. Here’s an exerpt from the book’s instructions for a tactile dinner party:

Polyrhythmic salad: the waiters approach the tables carrying for each guest a box with a crank on the left side and a china bowl. In the bowl, undressed lettuce leaves, dates, and grapes. Without the help of cutler, each diner uses his right hand to feed himself from the bowl while he turns the crank with his left. The box thus emits musical rhythms: and the waiters dance slowly with grand geometrical gestures in front of the table until the food has been eaten.

I’ve only been able to read articles written about the book, but it’s amazing how similar the food sounds to what I would consider today’s futuristic and modernist foods (French Laundry and Alinea most obvs). And it was written in 1932! Futuristic then, still futuristic 70+ years later.

Anyway, I’m excited to be witness to this crazyness and I even convinced two of my classmates to go with me. I’m not sure how much they’ll be into it, but they’re generally adventurous and it’ll make a good story to tell our friends back at Brown.